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twist the words to suit your needs! You took those words and you chiseled off all the corners till they fit some hole in your scheming head where you wanted them to fit, and that makes it right?”
    â€œI said I’d accept the blame, Aaron.”
    â€œAccept, hell! You’ll accept nothing because there’ll be nothing to accept! No blame! No sin! No baby! It makes me laugh to think you even believed we could get by with it. Just how do you think the fine women of Moran Township would take to one of their own showing up at church with a bastard son in her arms? Have you thought of what they’d do to Mary?”
    â€œThey’d never know it wasn’t mine, Aaron. Look at us. You know how much we look alike? The child would have the looks we both got from Ma and Pa. Nobody could look at it and say it’s yours, ’cause if he looked like you, he’d look like me, too. And I’d call it mine. It wouldn’t be no bastard.”
    Aaron still stood leaning on the table, glaring across at his brother.
    â€œI think the only bastard here is you!” he shouted.
    Mary leaned toward him and touched his arm, firmly but quietly demanding, “Sit down, Aaron. There’s been enough hurt done here already. We’ll not add more by saying things we’ll all regret later.”
    Aaron sat down, but the black look of rage stayed on his face.
    â€œJonathan,” Mary said, “I never complained about there being no babies, and if I acted like I held you responsible, I’m sorry. But what you’re asking is wrong. It’s wrong for Aaron and me, and it’s wrong for you. How could you ask such a thing?”
    Jonathan swallowed a great lump of love for her that welled up in his throat. He needed to make her see that he’d asked it out of love, but his wooden tongue was not easily commanded.
    â€œMary,” he began, but the words were so hard to place between them, “Mary…I…it was a thing I wanted to give you, like I couldn’t give you a baby.”
    â€œTo give me, Jonathan?”
    â€œEvery woman should have the chance…I couldn’t see no other way to give it to you.”
    Tears welled up in Mary’s eyes, and a confusion of feelings tightened her chest.
    â€œThere’s nobody else I’d ask except Aaron,” Jonathan went on, “I thought maybe he’d see it my way, like maybe some deed of goodness he could do you…and me, too.”
    â€œBut Jonathan, there’s got to be love before…” Here Mary looked at Aaron, and for the first time she became embarrassed. His angerwas partly under control, and with its going she had no defense against self-consciousness.
    â€œIt’s not as if there’s no love at all,” Jonathan said. “And I can see the need in you, Mary. I can see you need what nature intended. Would it be unkind if Aaron could give you that?”
    She could see that Aaron’s jaw was tightly clamped shut, the muscles quivering as he kept his silence. Suddenly the things they’d said last night, those confidences exchanged so innocently, became laden with meanings neither Aaron nor Mary had intended, and her eyes flashed quickly away from his when she sensed that he was thinking the same thing.
    â€œAnd for myself,” Jonathan was going on, “well, there’d seem more purpose to working the land with a son to take it on one day. He could even tie this place together again—the whole place might be his—not split apart like Pa left it to us two.”
    Aaron leaned his elbows on the table and folded his knuckles together, pressing them against his chin while he scowled at Jonathan.
    â€œYou weren’t kidding when you said you’d thought about this all winter, were you? You damn near planned the whole future for us, didn’t you, Jonathan? Only you never said how we’re all supposed to live with this when it’s over and done.